Summary
- Profile Type
- Business Offer
- POD Reference
- BOCA20240625012
- Term of Validity
- 25 June 2024 - 25 June 2025
- Company's Country
- Canada
- Type of partnership
- Investment agreement
- Commercial agreement
- Supplier agreement
- Targeted Countries
- All countries
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General information
- Short Summary
- The Canadian SME has a proprietary patent protected technology to convert elemental sulphur directly into micronized sulphur products with confirmed market fit in three segments, crop nutrient, soil health, and enhancement of existing agricultural product or applications. The SME is seeking product development, commercial, or investment partnerships.
- Full Description
-
The SME is an innovative agri-technology company based in Alberta, Canada. It addresses one of the most significant challenges of the 21st century: How to meet the global need to produce more food for growing populations without compromising the planet’s resources and economic benefits to producers. The company is dedicated to developing, producing and supplying superior micronized sulphur plant nutrient and soil amendment products that improve plant nutrient sulphur delivery and eliminate sulphur deficiency as an issue in global soil health.
Sulphur is a farmer’s old friend and has been used as an organic phytosanitary (plant heath) for years. It is one of the essential elements for crop production and soil quality. Its value as a fertilizer has been scientifically proven as demonstrated in the most recent European Union fertilizer regulation - Regulation (EU 2019/1009), which recognizes sulphur as a secondary macro-element.
Plants use sulphur to produce enzymes and proteins and stabilize nitrogen, contributing to the health of the plant and leading to better plant growth, crop quality, yields and disease resistance. Plants take sulphur from the soil as a sulphate ion through soil pore water. Fertilizers based on elemental sulphur or thiosulfates must first be oxidized to sulphate for plant uptake, which relies on microbial activity in the soil. The SME’s proprietary micronization process creates a sulphur particle of 5μ ≤ 600μ (Mean <75μ), that unlocks the potential of elemental sulphur through superior particle size and dispersion, resulting in faster microbial conversion and plant uptake. The diameter of a human hair is 50 μ, while a single grain of pollen is 7-10 μ in diameter.
The company’s commercially demonstrated scalable process can be globally deployed wherever agriculture and oil and gas processing sulphur recovery infrastructure coexist. Their proprietary patent-protected technology and related intellectual property sources molten sulphur directly from Sulphur Recovery Facilities for immediate conversion to plant nutrient and soil amendment products through the injection of molten sulphur at high velocity into a water/polymer blend, followed by the separation of the resulting micronized slurry from the water. The exothermic process does not require ammonia feedstock and only requires the energy necessary to thermally maintain the molten sulphur at a consistent temperature from the Sulphur Recovery Unit to injection. The energy requirement is minimized through best practice design that incorporates the highest heat transfer coefficients attainable. Net Zero is achieved through the incorporation of residual heat and solar technology in the final plant design. In addition, the high nutrient analysis of the SME’s products generates transportation and logistical carbon savings over traditional synthetic fertilizers. The SME has redefined elemental sulphur’s role in commercially viable sustainable agriculture. Their product line has confirmed market fit in three key agricultural market segments: crop nutrient, soil health and value-added enhancement of existing agricultural products. The products are designed to be applied through current conventional crop spray systems, liquid kits, or for surface broadcast, applied alone or blended with other plant nutrients or soil amendments. Their products are also supplied as a value-add raw input to enhance synthetic and non-synthetic granular products. - Advantages and Innovations
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SME’s product line delivers unique and scalable solutions to falling yields, arable land degradation, and growing sulphur deficiencies.
Innovations include:
• SME’s micron-sized sulphur particle size translates into superior particle dispersion and spacing, resulting in faster microbial conversion and plant uptake.
• SME’s scalable modular net zero plant design can be deployed rapidly to directly increase food availability and repair soil health worldwide at a fraction of the cost of synthetic alternatives and with a zero-carbon footprint
Advantages include:
• The season-long availability and outperformance of synthetic fertilizers amid the new “normal” of extreme weather, such as drought or excessive moisture, provides significant agronomic and economic benefits to producers.
• As a crop nutrient, independent scientific evidence has verified the ability of SME’s product line, under North American environment and soil conditions, to:
− Make sulphates available to the plant within 7-10 days of application.
− Achieve 95% product oxidization to plant available sulphates over the full growing season, resulting in matched performance in ideal conditions and outperformance of synthetic fertilizer in adverse environmental conditions at a lower nutrient and net application cost.
• As a soil amendment, the acidifying effect of the oxidation of elemental sulphur improves soil health and restores arable land degradation in the following ways:
− Lowering soil pH.
− Improving soil structure and water percolation.
− Promoting microbial bio-diversity.
− Soil amendment applications are typically determined by economics rather than by the amount required for optimal crop production and soil health. The combination of a low-cost production process and a superior mean particle size presents end users for the first time with the ability to maximize economic returns through optimal application. - Stage of Development
- Already on the market
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
- Goal 2: Zero Hunger
- Goal 15: Life on Land
- Goal 13: Climate Action
- IPR status
- IPR granted
Partner Sought
- Expected Role of a Partner
-
Market penetration of Europe by the SME requires a collaboration of innovation and product market fit initiatives, followed by direct investment in European production facilities to supply SME’s product line and micronized elemental sulphur for value added enhancement of existing agricultural products and applications. Partners are required to help demonstrate the ability of the SME’s product line to meet the crop nutrient and soil health objectives of European end users and address their priority problems. The SME is seeking to partner with:
• Distributors of plant nutrient and soil amendment products to commercial agriculture.
• Growers Associations seeking to increase crop marketability through the influence of sulphur on:
1) Colour and fragrance of flowers and vegetables.
2) Taste and aroma of foodstuffs such as cruciferous vegetables, garlic, onion, spinach, mustard, and greenhouse tomato.
• Manufacturers of existing plant nutrient and soil amendment products seeking to enhance their value proposition by adding micronized sulphur as a value- added raw material input.
− Enhancement of organic and mineral fertilizers.
− Elemental sulphur enhancement of cellulosic biomass and organic waste.
To date, the SME’s micronized elemental has been test applied in conjunction with organic materials (compost) and cement line dust (calcium) to enhance the value proposition of those applications to the end user. The company is currently developing a sulphur, humic acid, lignosulfonate pastille to improve quality and marketability of potatoes crop through the elimination of bentonite clay as sulphur binding agent. - Type and Size of Partner
- R&D Institution
- University
- SME 11-49
- Big company
- SME 50 - 249
- Type of partnership
- Investment agreement
- Commercial agreement
- Supplier agreement
Dissemination
- Technology keywords
- 10002004 - Climate Change mitigation
- 07001005 - Horticulture
- 07001007 - Precision agriculture
- 03004001 - Agro chemicals
- 07001004 - Crop Production
- Market keywords
- 05009001 - Food & feed ingredients
- 09005 - Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, Animal Husbandry & Related Products
- 08001022 - Agricultural chemicals
- 05009004 - Plant health
- Sector Groups Involved
- Agri-Food
- Targeted countries
- All countries